Some independent Labour leftists split from the paper when it opposed the tactic of raising rates to offset cuts to local government services.

In the mid-1980s, the paper was sued by the Workers Revolutionary Party over claims they repeated that the WRP was partially funded by money from the Libyan and Iraqi governments, but the WRP abandoned the action.

The newspaper gradually became more identified with the new WSL. This process was completed when the ICL/WSL fusion broke, as Socialist Organiser re-evaluated many of its international policies and developed its own distinctive "third camp" position.

As Socialist Organiser lost ground as a broad vehicle of left unity in the Labour Party, Sean Matgamna's supporters from the former ICL began to work entirely through the Socialist Organiser Alliance.